https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00Anne Lauriehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgAnne Laurie2016-12-08 21:08:222016-12-08 21:08:22Open Thread: No Bread for the Mobs, But Plenty of Circus

The pictures were taken by dad, so don’t crap all over the photography.

We have a custom built hood that goes over the stove, and the counters come next week. It’s kind of nice seeing everything come together a little bit. I feel as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you look in the fridge photo, the box with the stop sign is my dishwasher. I’m 46 and I have never owned a gas oven or a dishwasher (one rental where I lived for three years had a dishwasher, but we never used it because there were three of us there and when we cooked we had so many dishes we had to do them by hand anyway), so I am feeling very bourgeois. I’m told a dishwasher is a game changer.

At any rate, I am excited about a lot of little things. For example, the fridge has a water dispenser (something else I have never had), so now I no longer need to have a big Brita taking up half the top shelf. We’re going to go ahead and put an inline filter in the line to the fridge in the basement to save money on replacement filters. Also, the freezer is on the bottom, which means that no longer will I have food stuffs stored ankle high in the fridge that I forget about and pull out three weeks later looking like a biology project.

I’m also excited about the fact that my shower is going to have a door. No more shower curtains. No more mildew, no more getting in the shower in a hurry and not noticing that the liner is on the outside, showering, and looking out to find you have flooded the bathroom. No more treacherous steps OUT of the tub.

And a gas stove!!!!!!!

Oh, and walking around the house naked. I’m excited about that. Sorry for the visual.

The first American to orbit the Earth has died. John Glenn was the last surviving member of the original Mercury astronauts. He would later have a long political career as a U.S. senator, but that didn’t stop his pioneering ways.

Sigh.

Update to include this sweet photo h/t napolean:

A sweet thing: The late astronaut and senator John Glenn and his wife Annie were married for *73 years*. Condolences, Annie. pic.twitter.com/KbTykwcIP6

If I read one fucking more thinkpiece, blog post, semi-literate tweet, or facebook forward blaming whatever the fuck “identity politics” is for Democrats losing the election I am going to lose completely and totally lose my shit and climb a fucking bell tower. I don’t even know what people mean when they say identity politics anymore. So let me ask you:

No. Of course not. What you mean when you say “identity politics” is you mean all those groups you want to systematically oppress try to stand up and defend themselves and it hurts your feelings because you can’t have your way. In politics, it’s called COALITION BUILDING.

I left the GOP because of their identity politics. I couldn’t sleep at night being aligned with warmongerers, homophobes, christianists, climate deniers, flat earthers, racists, xenophobes, and every garden variety bigot under the sun. The Republicans are the real party of identity politics- it’s all about stroking the few, the white, the privileged, and that’s all they have. They don’t actually have policy proposals or ideas, unless “Fuck ’em let them starve,” “Fuck ’em they don’t need health care,” “Fuck it, let’s bomb them,” “Fuck it, let’s put them in jail,” “Fuck it, the bible says so,” or “Fuck it, let’s burn it all down” count as policies and ideas.

There’s also a fundamental difference in the reason for these two differing versions of “identity politics.” The Republican version is artificial, designed to maintain supremacy and the status quo and to keep the stranglehold of dominance over the evil “other.” Democratic identity politics is an organic emergence of the downtrodden and abused, gathering together to gain a voice and to stop the depredation, degradation, abuse, indignity, and physical, social, and economic violence being inflicted on them every single day. One identity serves to create and maintain injustice. The other identities are fighting the former. I know which group I am in.

So no. Democrats don’t need to massage the feelings of a bunch of racist dolts in Kansas who suffer from “economic anxiety” (pro-tip, morons- stop fucking voting for Brownback). Democrats need to embrace their identity politics, and they don’t need to cower, they need to be louder, and inyour face, and out there every single day fighting for what is right.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2016-12-08 14:57:042016-12-08 15:03:26Fuck You and Your "Democrats Have to End Identity Politics to Win" Bullshit